No Arabic abstract
We briefly summarize the impact of the chemical peculiarities associated to the multiple population phenomenon in Galactic Globular Clusters, on the evolutionary properties and spectral energy distribution of second generation stars, in comparison with the primordial stellar component.
In the multiple population framework, a number of studies have been accomplished in order to explore the behaviour of lithium with proton-capture element abundances (e.g., Na, O, Al) in globular cluster stars. Lithium offers perhaps one of the most severe constraints on the stellar source of internal pollution in these complex systems. Given its vulnerability, we expect that material processed via the hot H-burning, re-cycled in the formation of the subsequent generation(s), is free of Li. However, Nature breaks our expectations. In this contribution, we will review the current status of this field, by examining the controversial, surprising results and implications.
We have carried out a set of Monte Carlo simulations to study a number of fundamental aspects of the dynamical evolution of multiple stellar populations in globular clusters with different initial masses, fractions of second generation (2G) stars, and structural properties. Our simulations explore and elucidate: 1) the role of early and long-term dynamical processes and stellar escape in the evolution of the fraction of 2G stars and the link between the evolution of the fraction of 2G stars and various dynamical parameters; 2) the link between the fraction of 2G stars inside the cluster and in the population of escaping stars during a clusters dynamical evolution; 3) the dynamics of the spatial mixing of the first-generation (1G) and 2G stars and the details of the structural properties of the two populations as they evolve toward mixing; 4) the implications of the initial differences between the spatial distribution of 1G and 2G stars for the evolution of the anisotropy in the velocity distribution and the expected radial profile of the 1G and 2G anisotropy for clusters at different stages of their dynamical history; 5) the variation of the degree of energy equipartition of the 1G and the 2G populations as a function of the distance from the clusters centre and the clusters evolutionary phase.
We have calculated synthetic spectra for typical chemical element mixtures (i.e., a standard alpha-enhanced distribution, and distributions displaying CN and ONa anticorrelations) found in the various subpopulations harboured by Galactic globular clusters. From the spectra we have determined bolometric corrections to the standard Johnson-Cousins and Stroemgren filters, and finally predicted colours. These bolometric corrections and colour-transformations, coupled to our theoretical isochrones with the appropriate chemical composition, provide a complete and self-consistent set of theoretical predictions for the effect of abundance variations on the observed cluster CMD. CNO abundance variations affect mainly wavelengths shorter than 400 nm, due to the arise of molecular absorption bands in cooler atmospheres. As a consequence, colour and magnitude changes are largest in the blue filters, independently of using broad or intermediate bandpasses. Colour-magnitude diagrams involving uvy and UB filters (and their various possible colour combinations) are thus the ones best suited to infer photometrically the presence of multiple stellar generations in individual clusters. They are particularly sensitive to variations in the N abundance, with the largest variations affecting the Red Giant Branch (RGB) and lower Main Sequence (MS). BVI diagrams are expected to display multiple sequences only if the different populations are characterized by variations of the C+N+O sum and helium abundance, that lead to changes in luminosity and effective temperature, but leave the flux distribution above 400 nm practically unaffected. A variation of just the helium abundance, up to the level we investigate here, affects exclusively the interior structure of stars, and is largely irrelevant for the atmospheric structure and the resulting flux distribution in the whole wavelength range spanned by our analysis.
The internal dynamics of multiple stellar populations in Globular Clusters (GCs) provides unique constraints on the physical processes responsible for their formation. Specifically, the present-day kinematics of cluster stars, such as rotation and velocity dispersion, seems to be related to the initial configuration of the system. In recent work (Milone et al. 2018), we analyzed for the first time the kinematics of the different stellar populations in NGC0104 (47Tucanae) over a large field of view, exploiting the Gaia Data Release 2 proper motions combined with multi-band ground-based photometry. In this paper, based on the work by Cordoni et al. (2019), we extend this analysis to six GCs, namely NGC0288, NGC5904 (M5), NGC6121 (M4), NGC6752, NGC6838 (M71) and further explore NGC0104. Among the analyzed clusters only NGC0104 and NGC5904 show significant rotation on the plane of the sky. Interestingly, multiple stellar populations in NGC5904 exhibit different rotation curves.
We present an extenstive literature compilation of age, metallicity, and chemical abundance pattern information for the 41 Galactic globular clusters (GGCs) studied by Schiavon et al. (2005). Our compilation constitutes a notable improvement over previous similar work, particularly in terms of chemical abundances. Its primary purpose is to enable detailed evaluations of and refinements to stellar population synthesis models designed to recover the above information for unresolved stellar systems based on their integrated spectra. However, since the Schiavon sample spans a wide range of the known GGC parameter space, our compilation may also benefit investigations related to a variety of astrophysical endeavours, such as the early formation of the Milky Way, the chemical evolution of GGCs, and stellar evolution and nucleosynthesis. For instance, we confirm with our compiled data that the GGC system has a bimodal metallicity distribution and is uniformly enhanced in the alpha-elements. When paired with the ages of our clusters, we find evidence that supports a scenario whereby the Milky Way obtained its globular clusters through two channels, in situ formation and accretion of satellite galaxies. The distributions of C, N, O, and Na abundances and the dispersions thereof per cluster corroborate the known fact that all GGCs studied so far with respect to multiple stellar populations have been found to harbour them. Finally, using data on individual stars, we also confirm that the atmospheres of stars become progressively polluted by CN(O)-processed material after they leave the main sequence and uncover evidence which suggests the alpha-elements Mg and Ca may originate from more than one nucleosynthetic production site. [abridged]